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Mr and Mrs Smith

Alfred Hitchcock(1941)

90min

U Certificate

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Review

Our Score

by David Parkinson

Carole Lombard had always wanted to star in an Alfred Hitchcock film and, although situation comedy was far from Hitchcock's forte, he agreed to take the assignment as a favour for a friend. The result is this patchy farce in which Lombard (in her penultimate picture) and Robert Montgomery discover that their marriage is invalid and set about trying to outdo each other in their pleasure at being single. Even a screwball maestro such as Howard Hawks would have been pushed to do much with Norman Krasna's clunky script and Hitch's lack of interest is apparent. Lombard took over the director's chair for Hitch's obligatory cameo in which he plays a drunk asking Montgomery for money.

Summary

A couple's rather dull life together is turned upside-down by a bureaucratic decision which renders their marriage null and void - prompting them to attempt to outdo each other in their newfound freedom. Alfred Hitchcock's romantic comedy, with Carole Lombard, Robert Montgomery, Gene Raymond and Jack Carson.